Hospitals all over the world have really beautiful murals or paintings on their walls. It makes sense; the patients could use a therapeutic and relaxing ambience. Not so in Karachi. Most hospitals look like dumps in the middle of dump sites. And the bigger, better ones have a clinical edge that is almost frightening. Street art has been done many times to beautify Karachi (soon overwritten by graffiti, more often than not) but hospitals hadn’t been paid attention to much. Coincidentally, around the same time as I planned this, another architect, Haya Qadri, came up with a similar plan titled …
Month: November 2018
The Untold Edition — Open Mic Night at T2F
The Second Floor (T2F) was one of the first open artistic spaces in Karachi. The kind of place where anyone could go to vent, express and find a sanctuary for freedom of speech. I have been fascinated with it as long as I can remember. Now a lot of such places have opened up, but somehow, none of them embody that spirit of tolerance which T2F did under Sabeen Mahmud. Sabeen Mahmud was murdered for her tolerance and her desire to inspire change. Murdered by the very same crowd that protested the streets when a Christian woman was acquitted for …
Featured by Forever 17
The other day a blogger reached out to me. She wanted to interview me for her online magazine. More than just a chance to be featured, it was a great opportunity to reflect on my own work and what I was trying to say. The interview is linked below 🙂 Kehkashan Khalid- In the spotlight
Discovering Jeddah
A significant part of my project proposal has been stepping out of my comfort zone to see if there were any artistic avenues in Jeddah — contrary to popular opinion. Looking at my old blog posts I realize I can date it back to that day at Arbab al Heraf. That day two things coincidentally came to my attention: I realized that, hidden in the nooks and crannies of Jeddah, circles of writers and artists bloomed Jeddah, and KSA as a whole, was undergoing a mini-cultural revolution Thus began an exploration that has gained momentum over this last year, almost too …
The Indie Arts and Crafts Show and my first magazine feature!
This summer I was part of one of the largest arts and crafts shows hosted in Karachi by The Crafter’s guild: The Indie Arts and Crafts Show. It was a great opportunity to not only exhibit/sell work but also to meet other artists. It was absolutely incredible to see so much talent and get to befriend people with similar interests. Here are some pictures from the show; it also resulted in me getting featured in a magazine for the first time. Indie Art & Craft Show 2018 The most interesting part of the whole thing were the conversations I had …